


Nayru’s Counterpoint

by DrSteggy



Category: Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Adulting sucks, Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sex, Middle Aged Characters, Tags May Change, Trauma, What timeline?, i wrote this for me but y'all can read it i guess, really adult Zelda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrSteggy/pseuds/DrSteggy
Summary: Zelda is a mid 40's widow with two adult children and she knows where her life is headed right up until some middle aged man unexpectadly draws the Master Sword. She has been ready to accept her role since she was 12. He has no idea what is going on.
Relationships: Impa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Nayru’s Counterpoint

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Uneasy Lies the Chosen of Farore](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22857055) by [DrSteggy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrSteggy/pseuds/DrSteggy). 



> So, I had been thinking it might be fun to look at scenes from Farore through Zelda's point of view, and people seemed to be into the idea and here we are. 
> 
> My plan is to go through the big fic at my leisure, as I feel like it, which means I do not have any sort of schedule on which this might update. It may not finish. The things I needed to work through with Link I feel pretty good about, and I consider Farore completed.
> 
> But. This seems like a fun way to play with things and I am apparently not quite ready to leave this AU behind.
> 
> I’m not sure you need to read the main fic first or not.

“Someone drew the sword? Today?”

“Today, your highness. His name is Link.”

Silence. Then “That’s… a  _ common _ name, isn’t it? There are at least two in the royal guard. Which one?”

“Not the guard.” Pause. “This one is a lifer, but no longer active duty. He got himself injured a few years ago. Now he teaches.”

The queen stared across her desk at the wall. Silence stretched out between the two of them like a cat. 

“He is sharing his experience with the recruits,” her captain offered.

“So, how old is he, exactly, then?” She asked. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes, watching the whole situation worsen in front of her. 

Nothing.

“Has this blade ever chosen someone over the age of 18? I thought the whole reason we present very young boys to it was because it chooses the very young?”

Her captain drew a breath and stopped whatever he was going to say. 

She repeated herself. “How old is he?”

“He is forty-two, your highness.”

Forty-two.

“Can I ask what a  _ forty-two _ year old man was doing when he got his hands on the Master Sword?” She slid her face into her hands, bracing for impact.

“He was leading the group presenting to the sword. He has brought children to the sword annually for the past three or four years.”

“Surely he was presented when he was younger- he must tug on that sword every year! Why now?”

“Today, it seems, the blade found him worthy.”

Zelda’s head was still in her hands when her guard captain left. She tried to decide how she felt, exactly. Mostly, she felt nothing, but there was dread in the potential.

“Impa?” her voice was muffled in her palms.

“Your Majesty.”

“I assume you heard all of that.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

“Please drop the titles right now, Impa. His name is Link. _ Link _ . By the three, what am I supposed to do with that?”

“It's not him. It's a common name.”

“Are you  _ sure _ ?”

“Oh, he is still in Eldin and he has not left in at least six months. He hasn’t been anywhere near the Temple of Time.”

“You’re sure.”

Impa’s voice took on an edge. “I’m sure. I keep tabs on _ him _ . It's not him.”

************************************

Two days later, he was at Hyrule Castle, this mysterious man who had drawn the Sword that Seals the Darkness. Zelda settled behind her desk in her office, waiting for him to be formally presented. 

The past two days had been a whirlwind for her. She pulled every advisor she had and put them interviewing anyone who had so much as crossed paths with this Link. The dive had been as deep as it was speedy. She woke up to briefings about his history and she started to form a picture about who he was.

The son of a Hateno horse breeder, he had come to Castletown to join the military when he wasn’t quite seventeen, and had been mostly unremarkable, save the day he put himself in front of a moblin. To be fair, the kingdom was at peace and there wasn’t much to do. He had ended up breaking a leg in that encounter, and that had mostly ended any active duty career he’d had. He did a tour in Lurelin for a few years and then had been serving as a teacher back at the Academy. He seemed pretty unremarkable in that role, as well.

His commanding officers had thought well of him, at least. He was loyal. He worked hard. He was reliable. He was utterly ordinary three days ago.

He had an older brother who was married and had a son. His parents were still alive, but he did not seem to be very close to them. At least, he’d last been home to nurse his broken leg. 

His list of known associates was more interesting. He seemed to couple up with some woman each time he shifted assignments and ended them when he moved on. It didn’t seem to take him long to find someone willing to spend time with him. He even seemed to have partners in places he passed through frequently. 

Yet he’d never asked one to move with him, or offered anyone a ring. His past romances remembered him with passing fondness or indifference, with a few exceptions that he seemed to have struck a deeper chord with. He had not sired any offspring anyone was aware of.

His last known paramour had been discovered by Impa. Peatrice, the head reference librarian in the Castle library. Impa didn’t seem to think that relationship was much longer for the world based on Peatrice’s reaction to the news about her lover. She certainly hadn’t tried to see him.

The knock on her door pulled her from her reverie and she straightened up. “Come.”

The Royal Guardsman entered and offered a quick bow. “Your majesty, I present Link, appointed knight of the realm, bearer of the Master Sword.”

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but she felt underwhelmed. He looked to be her height with a slim, athletic build. His blonde ponytail had probably been platinum when he was young, but age darkened it. There was even a sprinkle of gray on top of his head. He seemed to limp just a little on the left. The man was out of uniform, too, in khaki pants with tall boots and a green tunic. He had belted the sword across his back, hilt jutting above his right shoulder, end of the blue and gold scabbard by his left hip. 

He stood squarely before her, hands at his sides. Their eyes briefly met before he seemed to remember where he was. He dropped to one knee, bowing his head. 

“Rise.”

Link stood to attention, arms falling back to his side as he met her gaze again.

“Tell me, Link, about that sword on your back. How did you come by it?” she opened.

“I pulled it from its pedestal in the Temple of Time.”

She stared straight through him. He stared back. This was not going well.

“Your majesty, I have no more to say. I pulled on it. It came free.”

They considered each other again. She decided to try a different tact. 

“It is said the sword speaks to its bearer. That the chosen hero who pulls the sword from its home remembers all who have held it before him. Is this true?”

He drew a breath. He closed his eyes and let it stutter out. He seemed momentarily unmoored in himself. She called him back to the present.

“It is best if you are honest. This is an unusual situation. For me, too.”

He dropped his eyes for a second and then raised them again. “Yes, it speaks. It is eager to get to work, though it won’t tell me what that work is. And yes, my head is full of memories that are not mine. It is better than when I first claimed the sword but it is work to stay on top.”

Something about the slightly overwhelmed look to him softened her. Her gut recognized him for who he was, as hard as it seemed to believe given what was before her. She had spent her childhood and teen years preparing for him to arrive, and he never did. He was supposed to be bold and dashing and maybe a little chaotic. He should not be forty two, slightly lame, and out of his depth like this. 

This was what she had to work with.

She felt sorry for him.

The queen’s gaze softened a little. “We have work to do, then.”

************

Zelda finally dismissed him at dinner time. She spent the entire afternoon reviewing his record and asking him questions. He was not particularly forthcoming and seemed constantly a little off balance during the interview. He left looking even more lost, if that were possible, then he had at the start. 

Impa waited for her in her private dining room, a glass of wine ready. Zelda took the glass and a generous swallow of the dry Necluda white and hefted a sigh.

“How’d it go?” Asked Impa. 

Zelda tapped her fingers against her glass and turned away, sudden emotion churning as she considered the question. “I don’t know. It could have been better. I don’t. I don’t understand why. It might be better if it was  _ him _ .” She heard her voice thicken and attempted to hide it with another sip of wine.

“It would not be better.” Impa sounded confident, at least. “The history you two had would poison trying to work together. Moot point, anyway.”

Zelda slowly shook her head. “I do not think he has this in him. I would be better served with a sixteen year old hero.”  _ Nayru, Din and Farore. Farore. What were you thinking? _

“That’s younger than Marrin and Colin,” Impa named Zelda’s sons. “Would you really want a child in this role? I don’t think you would tolerate a teenager putting himself between you and whatever the end game is.”

Impa was probably right, Zelda reflected. But couldn’t he have at least looked the part? Been taller or broader across his shoulder, or at least battle tried?

Though she wasn’t battle tried, either, maybe that wasn’t fair. 

“I don’t want to think about this right now. Let’s eat.”

***********

A day later, he was back in her office, at his request. Zelda liked her office. It was formal and private and she chose it for official meetings after the death of the king. He sat awkwardly in a straight backed chair before her, hands clasped together in his lap, hunched slightly forward. His eyes were more lost than yesterday.

“How can I help you?” she asked.

“I need guidance. I do not know what to do with this obligation. I do not know if I can do whatever it is that is required of me.”

_ Well. _

She sat silent for a minute, turning this over. How much worse was this going to get, she wondered. “I do not think you have a choice.”

“This has always been a thing for younger people. Much younger. My prime has come and gone.”

She folded her hands in front of her and considered him. He didn’t really have a choice it’s not like he could just put the sword back at this point. He might be very ordinary but he must be more than he seemed. She knew she couldn’t convince him of that with mere words.

“You do not get to make that choice,” she started. “It appears that the hero and the incarnation of the goddess are meant to be contemporaries. You are older because I am older. There is currently no princess Zelda; and the next one will be my granddaughter as I am past more children, even if the king were still with us,” She leaned forward a bit and softened her voice. “I know it does not seem fair, to pull you from the place you thought you belonged and force a new world on you. This sort of thing happens all the time, especially as we get older, if you think about it. Loved ones die, for example, even long before you think that might be a possibility. Your world has changed and you can’t go back, but it was going to do that eventually anyway.

“I did not expect this call at this time, either; but I have to believe that I am prepared or I would not have been called. This has to be true for you, as well, even if you don’t see the potential.“ She put a hand over his. “This is a thing you may have wanted when you were younger, and it’s rare to have that sort of opportunity. Embrace it. It is what it is.”

She sat back and considered him. He stared hard but was otherwise unreadable. The silence lingered for a long moment. 

“I realize, Your majesty, that you have plans for some sort of training for me since my circumstances have changed,” he started. “I would like to ask for some leave. I have not seen my family in some time and I do not think this… obligation will leave me with much leisure time.”

“Of course. However… if part of your plan is to try and rekindle some past romance, I’d ask you to reconsider. For now, at least. This is a lot for you. Don’t complicate it more.”

He took his hand back and said nothing. His stony look did not change. What was going on behind that visage?

“You do understand you have been quite the subject of discussion the past few days? Your commanding officers speak highly of you. We are going to be working closely and neither of us can be distracted.”

“I would like to go now.”

She sighed. “As you wish.”

Once he was gone, she sent a summons for Impa.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I have several irons in the fire and I can share exactly none of them for a while. In the meantime...fic for March.


End file.
